This week, the Physical Society holds its annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif., together with the Association of Physics Teachers. The meeting will be marked by several innovations, continuing a series of changes in APS's activities and operation during the past few years that one observer calls revolutionary. Traditionally conservative—some would say elitist and stodgy —and devoted almost exclusively to advancement and diffusion of the knowledge of physics, the 76-year-old society has moved toward a more activist posture. Pressure for the change has come from the scientific and economic environment and demands of members. This changed posture is directed both inward (toward democratization of governing procedures and attention to members' economic and professional interests) and outward (toward public affairs activities). Indeed, a recent study prepared for the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, American Learned Societies in Transition (C&EN, Nov. 11, 1974, page 14...